Vaclav Havel, Postmodernism, and Modernity: The Implications for Adult Education in the West

Abstract: This paper investigates the possibilities open to adult educators who reject the modern impulse to systematize and unify. Against popular opinion, we argue that not all postmodern options are bleak. We offer as an example a positive postmodern alternative advanced by Czechoslovakian President/playwright Vaclav Havel. Man [sic] must in some way come to his senses. He [sic] must extricate himself from this terrible involvement in both the obvious and the hidden mechanisms of totality, from consumption to repression, from advertising to manipulation through television. He [sic] must rebel against his role as a helpless cog in the gigantic and enormous machinery hurtling God knows where. (Havel, 1990, p. 11) In this paper, we consider postmodernists to be those among us who reject the modern impulse to systematize and universalize. We believe such individuals or alliances of individuals are attracted to postmodernism because Postmodernism challenges global, all-encompassing world views, be the